Chinese Bronze Age Political Economies: A Complex Polity Provisioning Approach

Journal of Archaeological Research - In this article we argue that several of the dominant narratives concerning the political economy of the Chinese Bronze Age are in need of major revision,...     

“I spent the first year drinking tea”: Exploring Canadian university researchers’ perspectives on community‐based participatory research involving Indigenous peoples

Community‐based participatory research (CBPR) is generally understood as a process by which decision‐making power and ownership are shared between the researcher and the community involved, bi‐directional research capacity and co‐learning are promoted, and new knowledge is co‐created and disseminated in a manner that is mutually beneficial for those involved. Within the field of Canadian geography we are seeing emerging interest in using CBPR as a way of conducting meaningful and relevant research with Indigenous communities. However, individual interpretations of CBPR's tenets and the ways in which CBPR is operationalized are, in fact, highly variable. In this article we report the findings of an exploratory qualitative case study involving semi‐structured, open‐ended interviews with Canadian university‐based geographers and social scientists in related disciplines who engage in CBPR to explore the relationship between their conceptual understanding of CBPR and their applied research. Our findings reveal some of the tensions for university‐based researchers concerning CBPR in theory and practice.     

Chronologies in wood and resin: AMS C dating of pre-Hispanic Caribbean wood sculpture

This paper establishes a chronological framework for selected pieces of Caribbean (Taíno/Lucayan) wooden sculpture, enabling previously ahistoric artefacts to fit back into the wider corpus of pre-colonial material culture. Seventy-two ¹⁴C AMS determinations from 56 artefacts held in museum collections are reported, including 32 ceremonial duhos, or seats. Far from being constrained to the last few centuries prior to contact, the dates for these objects extend back to ca. AD 250, and include the artistic legacies of various cultures. Duhos in both low and high back styles are present from about AD 600, if not earlier, in a distribution that spans the Antillean island chain from Trinidad to Cuba. Complex, drug-related paraphernalia and elaborate ancestral reliquaries are in evidence by AD 1000, as are some distinctive regional styles – such as the unique iconography from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos islands. This paper explores relevant methodological issues – from the challenges of working with museum pieces (e.g., uncertain provenance, discrete sampling techniques, impact of previous conservation treatments on dating results), to dealing with potential ‘in-built’ age in tropical hardwoods.     

Archaeological Site or Natural Marine Community? Excavation of a Submerged Shell Mound in Ninigret Pond,Rhode Island

ABSTRACT

Submerged shell midden sites and natural shell deposits can have similar characteristics and can be difficult to distinguish archaeologically. We excavated two test units from a large (at least 35 m×70 m) submerged shell mound in Fort Neck Cove in southern Rhode Island to assess whether it was natural or cultural in origin. This mound had been recognized as a potential archaeological feature as early as the 1970s. Excavation, radiocarbon dating, and subsequent laboratory analysis of excavated materials suggest that the mound was a natural oyster reef rather than a submerged archaeological site. No artifacts were found; there was no clear evidence for human modification of any shells; small species that would not have been targeted as food were present; and δ¹³C values of oyster shells from the mound were consistent with freshwater input into their growth environment, suggesting that they grew in an estuarine environment that did not exist prior to the inundation of the ponds. The stratigraphically oldest radiocarbon date we could obtain (430–190 cal BP, 2σ range), from 70 cm below the pond floor, placed deposition of shells at least 3,000 years after the inundation of the pond. The excavation methods that we used and the process of testing, irrespective of whether the feature is cultural, are valuable contributions to the methodological literature on submerged site archaeology and help provide insight for other researchers working to discern natural from cultural shell midden sites.     

Early African America: Archaeological Studies of Significance and Diversity

This article examines archaeological studies of the cultural heritage and social dynamics of African descendant populations in the United States and Canada from AD 1400 through 1865. European colonial enterprises expanded in Africa and the Americas during that time span, effecting an accompanying movement of free and captive Africans into North America. Archaeological investigations of early African America are remarkable for the diversity of analytic scales and research questions pursued. This diversity of research efforts has yielded a highly productive, interdisciplinary expansion of knowledge concerning African diaspora histories.     

Charcot in contemporary literature

Charcot and his medical observations remain an enduring topic of scientific study in neurology, but he is also the topic of modern literary works. This essay examines the depiction of Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893) as a character in late-twentieth-century literature as an index of the contemporary nonmedical literary public's interest in neurology and Charcot. It focuses on three contemporary works that involve Charcot as a central figure with comparison between primary source documents and the rendered context, character development, and plot lines of these literary works. The two French novels [Slumbers of Indiscretion and Dr. Charcot of the Salpêtrière] and one American play [Augustine (Big Hysteria)] approach Charcot and neurology with differing levels of historical accuracy. All create a figure of authority, each with a different coloration of the balance between power and its abuse. Two focus almost exclusively on his work with hysteria and inaccurately amplify Charcot's concern with symbolic sexual conflict as the origin of hysteria and fictionalize more extensive interactions with Freud than historical documents support. The three works demonstrate that Charcot retains an enduring fascination with an enigmatic personality, a controversial career, and a pivotal role in the development of studies involving the brain and behavior. Neurologists should not look to these works as replacements for more seriously composed historical studies, but as enrichments anchored in the imaginative possibilities of Charcot and his fin de siècle era.